KATHMANDU, Dec 10: Nepal Army (NA) has unveiled eight different promotional activities to help make the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign a success. 

Organizing a press conference at its headquarters on Monday, the NA said it plans to support the government’s initiative to bring in over 2 million tourists by organizing activities that can potentially help make Nepal an important tourist destination. These activities include jungle safari, mountain trekking, Mount Everest expedition, Sagarmatha cleaning campaign, paragliding and the annual Liglige Race, among others. 

Similarly, the NA also plans to promote other adventure tourism activities, marathon race, international peace seminars and unification trail trekking to show how Nepal was able to defend its sovereignty even during the adverse circumstances. NA plans to organize the activities in different time throughout the year beginning from 2020. 

NA Spokesperson Bigyan Dev Pandey said they are organizing these activities in order to help bring tourists from countries that Nepal has diplomatic relations with and those countries where NA has left its footprint. He said that the tourism promotion activities are part of NA’s modest efforts to help the government to realize the objective of Visit Nepal 2020. 

Deputy Liaison Officer of NA’s Liaison Office for Visit Nepal 2020 Colonel Subash Thapa said they plan to organize jungle safari in various national parks where NA has been providing security to facilitate tourists to watch wildlife and their activities. These include Chitwan National Park, Bardiya National Park, Shuklaphanta National Park, and Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve.

Similarly, the NA plans to organize mountain trekking within its logistical arrangement to the Everest Base Camp, Rara Lake Trek, Annapurna Circuit and Langtang Trek. 

According to Colonel Thapa, NA plans to organize adventure sports like cycling and mountain climbing in Mustang that lies 2800 meters above the sea level. Rafting and paragliding activities are also part of the promotional activities that NA plans to organize. 

NA committed to complete Fast-Track within stipulated date
Although the ongoing construction of Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway is a bit delayed due to some technical reasons including delay in endorsing Detailed Project Report, the NA said it is committed to complete the construction work within the stipulated date. 

Addressing the press conference, Brigadier General Sharad Lal Shrestha, who heads the Fast Track Project, said they are currently preparing for an integrated package of high bridges, tunnel and road works after they received DPR from the government. 

The army expects to complete the 72.5 km long Kathmandu-Nijgadh Expressway by April 2024 and hand it over to the government.

Brigadier General Shrestha said they are currently in the process to shortlist consultants for geo-technical and geophysical investigation of the areas where tunnels are being built as part of the fast track. Stating that geo-technical report will be ready by mid-July 2020, Shrestha said that the construction of tunnels shall be started by the selected international construction companies.

 
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